The Smallest Rose
by TheSoggyBug
Summary: Rose is gone; all the gems are left with is a painful, human reminder. In attempt to connect their past with their future, Greg leaves Steven in the care of the gems, but even Garnet can't decide whether to hold on or let go.


The gems didn't know how much time had passed since Rose left. They still weren't accustomed to measuring time like humans did, but her absence still felt like a raw wound in each of them. Much of their time was spent secluded in their rooms or sitting outside of the temple, watching the moon push and pull the ocean.

Although she tried not to show it, Garnet took the brunt of Rose being gone. No one said it aloud, but she had ultimately ended up as the head of the Crystal Gems with her future vision and strength. With that responsibility came the crushing burden of holding their team together, but with Rose gone, it was harder than ever.

Garnet peeled her eyes from the ground and glanced up at Pearl and Amethyst, who were standing stiffly near the edge of the cave. They were all waiting; they _had_ been waiting for what she assumed to be hours. Greg was supposed to bring Steven over that morning. None of them saw before what Rose had become, and frankly, they were all too scared. Even Garnet's future vision was foggy with anxiety.

Under the soft sounds of waves lolling onto the sand, the gems could hear the heavy steps of Greg's sandals making their way towards the temple entrance. Although they had been on Earth for hundreds of human lifetimes, they were unaccustomed to the tiny coos of baby talk that followed Greg as he finally came within sight of the Crystal Gems.

Unlike them, time was unkind to the man. His once voluptuous locks of hair now retreated further into his scalp, and his skin sagged over his thick frame. His appearance was of no concern for him, for he too suffered heavily with the loss of Rose.

Amethyst was the first one to speak, several minutes after Greg appeared in the mouth of the temple cave.

"'Sup," she said, not straightening up from her lean on the cave wall. Instead of meeting his eyes, she kept staring fixedly at the space directly in front of her.

"...Uh, hi," Greg answered, picking up on the gems' moods. He shifted the bundle of blankets in one arm and the duffel bag in the other. "You remembered about today?"

When the other two gems looked over at Garnet, Greg coughed.

"Of course you remembered." Greg glanced down at the bustling pile of cloth in his arms with a look that Garnet knew well: love. "He's a little handful alright. He doesn't really cry all that much...just laughs and laughs no matter what scary face his old man makes…" He laughed awkwardly, the joke obviously lost on his alien audience. "So, uh, I see you guys got a little makeshift housing going on in here. Is it safe?"

Pearl's face tensed up and she snapped her head towards Amethyst. "Tell him it's perfectly fine," she snapped, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

Amethyst just scratched her nose. "We won't let anything happen to him, Greg."

Greg's face was struck with a look of pure anguish, but he tried to smile. "Oh, that's good...so you guys know how to take care of a baby, right?"

Garnet finally stood up from her seat, her arms crossing just as Amethyst's had. "Tiny human, teeny needs. Not too difficult."

After a minute of deciding, Greg sighed and set the duffel bag down at his feet. "I put an emergency cell phone in the bag, so call me if you have any questions or anything. I'm just going to be across town. I'm glad that you're finally getting to know Steven." With an uncertain smile, he gently passed baby Steven into Pearl's arms and turned. "I'll be back around lunchtime for him!"

As soon as Greg's fleeting steps completely faded into nothingness, Pearl passed the baby along to Amethyst without a second glance. "I just can't." Her voice gave way to despair as she choked back violent sobs and left the temple.

Amethyst's dark eyes followed Pearl's figure retreat from the temple into the blinding light outside. Small tears welled up in her eyes as she forced herself to look at Steven, her face grievous as he drooled up at her.

She let a short breath out of her nose and held Steven up to Garnet. "Sorry, Garnet. There's somewhere I have to be."

Garnet took the baby and watched as the other gem left her alone in the temple cave, a squirming human in her arms and the light of sunrise filtering onto their faces.

She held him out in front of her gingerly, afraid of hurting his fragile, tiny body. He just stared at her, blinking with the same kindness Rose's eyes held.

 _We know those eyes_.

Two voices erupted in the back of her throat, filling Garnet with painful chaos. In the blink of her three eyes, she exploded apart and became two.

Unfortunately, Garnet hadn't set Steven down before breaking apart, and with a startled hiccup, he flew into the air.

With a calculated shoulder roll, Ruby raised her stubby arms up and caught Steven before he had the chance to blink. If his life had not been in danger, it would have been almost funny watching his disorientation as he tried to figure out what just happened.

"Here," Ruby growled as she passed the child over to the smaller blue gem, "take it."

" _Ruby_ ," Sapphire said softly, holding Steven to her almost in accusation.

Ruby sniffed loudly and stomped her feet, tiny beads of tears forming in her eyes. " _What_ , Sapphire? What do you want me to say? 'Oh man, I'm totally okay with letting Rose disappear so we can have some little human clump instead'! We should've _stopped_ her; we shouldn't of let her go for-for _that!_ "

"There wasn't anything we could've said that would have made Rose change her mind," answered Sapphire, smoothing the front of her dress with one hand.

" _But we should have stopped her!_ " Ruby clutched onto her hair in pure frustration, her feet burning into the ground.

"No, we shouldn't have. Steven is important, and you know this as well as I do."

Ruby groaned loudly, "Rose is gone, Sapphire! Rose is gone and it's his fault! _She_ was the important one, not him!"

"It was her _choice._ Rose knew what would happen. She _chose_ to have Steven."

"But he's here and she isn't! She's gone and she's never..." Ruby covered her eyes with her hands, her voice cracking as she fought back her sobs desperately. "She's...never coming back."

Upset over all the yelling, Steven began squirming in Sapphire's arms. His face turned red and he began sniffling, tears and snot all over the blankets.

"Grrah!" Ruby looked up from her hands and glared at Steven, the tears evaporating from her eyes. "Shut your mouth! _You have no reason to cry!"_ She growled again when his cries grew louder, her tiny red fists slamming into her ears to block out the noise. "Why is he crying?! We're the ones who deserve to cry!"

Ignoring the other gem, Sapphire turned away and began rocking the wailing baby, trying to calm him down. Even singing didn't help.

"Please, Steven," Sapphire huffed, trying to keep him from yanking out the hair of her bangs.

After a few more second of the screams getting louder, Sapphire pulled Ruby towards her and passed the baby over.

"What, why? Why did you give me it? It's..." Steven cries faded into awed silence. He stared up at her as if she was the single most interesting object in the whole universe. Ruby was lost in the beautiful wonder that was Rose's eyes...

 _Steven's eyes._

His open-mouthed stare shifted towards a delighted smile, and no fury could have stopped a small smile appearing on her own lips.

Steven's little hands began to reach up towards Ruby's hair, a pure look of delight plastered on his tiny features.

"Sapphire? He's doing a thing, what is he doing? He's-"

Steven put both of his hands on Ruby's cheeks and giggled, kicking his legs and spitting a string of drool onto his onesie.

Ruby laughed quietly as she shifted him onto one hand so she could wipe away the trail of drool he had hanging from his mouth. "Okay, sure, he ain't all bad...:"

With a sparkling look of wonder, the tiny gem reached his hands up and grabbed onto Ruby's headband, stretching it towards his face so he could chew on it.

"Hey man, back off my-aaAUUGH."

Steven had snapped the headband back straight into Ruby's eyeballs.

Ruby screamed, opening her hands in enraged shock and dropping Steven.

Sapphire, of course, swooped in with grace and scooped Steve into her small, blue arms.

"Ruby," Sapphire said flatly, "You do not drop small humans."

Ruby clutched her eyes and screamed again, "YOU'RE LUCKY HE'S NOT ON FIRE." She drew one of her hands away from her reddened eyes and pointed accusingly at Steven. "HE'S A MONSTER."

"He's a _baby_ ," Sapphire tried explaining, reaching out as if to give the child back to the other gem, but Ruby stepped backwards.

"Get him away from me," she snapped. "He's a monster. That's not Rose."

Without saying anything else, Sapphire left to sit with Steven at the mouth of the cage.

She sat like that for a long time, and after that time was up, she just sighed.

"This is all we have left of her now, though, and we need to cherish it."

Ruby couldn't think of anything to say back to her beloved. She knew she was right, sure, but could she accept it? Could she watch him grow up and not harbor feelings of resentment?

After a while, she inched towards the mouth of the cave and settled next to Sapphire. She couldn't look at her; Ruby didn't want her to see how much she was crying.

"Why...why would she choose this over us? Why did she want to leave?"

"...You know why."

Ruby did know.

They had seen Steven's birth just weeks after Rose Quartz first met Greg. They knew from the beginning that Rose might give up her physical form to make Steven. Garnet had seen how important Steven was going to be for the future of gems and humans on Earth, and it was her duty to tell Rose what she had seen.

They all knew the role Steven had to play, and they knew that Rose was going to choose him over them. Earth was their responsibility, and they couldn't let feelings get in the way of the future.

Yet, it didn't make it any less painful losing her.

Sitting there, staring at the clouds moving over the ocean, Ruby reached over and took Sapphire's hand.

They would make it through this, no matter what. They saw more than loss.

Laughter, love, kindness.

The future was more than the two of them, and Steven was a testament to that fact.

"Hey...where's the kid?" Ruby, for some reason, looked under her chubby leg as if she had sat on him.

Sapphire lifted her bangs with her free hand, staring down in her empty lap in shock. Apparently, neither of them had seen Steven sneak away.

In a split-second, both of the gems were on their feet and running around the beach, shouting Steven's name like a dog and frantically digging through the sand to find him.

Ruby lifted up a massive chunk of Earth. "He's not here, Sapphire. Where is he?" When the baby wasn't under the soil, she threw it back down and began tossing boulders around. "Use your future vision!"

Sapphire was floating in a panic around the base of the temple. "I can't see anything!"

Ruby screamed and clutched her hair, "WE HAD ONE JOB!" She ran in circles, the sand around her turning slowly into glass. "Oh man, oh man. Greg is going to _kill_ us!"

They kept searching desperately through the beach, when Ruby spotted shuffle marks leading around the opposite side of the temple.

Ruby incoherently screamed, pointing at the shuffle marks, and face-planted in the sand trying to lunge in that direction.

Sapphire, somehow understanding her red counterpart's gibberish, floated as quickly as possible. "Steven!"

It didn't take them too long to find the little one pressed close to the side of the temple, chewing on something pink. When he saw them running towards him, he smiled and excreted a fountain of saliva.

"What are you doing all the way over here?" Sapphire scolded gently, picking the baby up and wiping sand off the side of his face.

Ruby skidded to a stop next to the other gems, panting in relief before straightening. Her brows furrowed. "What's that in his mouth?"

Minding the drool, Sapphire gently picked the gooey object from the child's mouth and spread it out in her hand.

It was one of Rose's flowers that grew from her moss on the top of the hill. It was slightly mauled, but despite the damage, it still smelled sweetly of fresh earth and roses.

Ruby's eyes clouded over with some unreadable emotion, her fingers instinctually reaching out towards Sapphire's to touch the petals. It had been a long time since either of them had seen one of these flowers, and it was strangely comforting.

Even when she was gone, she managed to smuggle some of her beauty into this world, both through Steven and her beautiful gardens.

With a tender smile, the two gems held Steven close and rested their heads on one another in relief.

Everything was okay, maybe even blissful, in that single moment.

Steven stuck one of Ruby's fingers in his mouth and chewed on it, right before soiling his diaper loudly.

The moment of peace turned into a moment of revulsion, when both of the gems inwardly thanked the stars that waste was just a human thing.

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck and leaned back from Steven. "Uhm...Hey, I can, um, carry him if you want."

Sapphire gladly handed Steven over to Ruby and smiled. "We need to go back to the temple for sure...How such a little one can stink so fierce is beyond even me."

Ruby smiled. "Well, babe. We lose some and we win some." She gave her cheek a quick peck.

Back in the temple, after a trial-and-error changing of Steven's diaper, the three gems sat in the cave with the smallest on their lap.

Steven's restlessness apparently wore out, and he was content to stare at the crystals on the ceiling while chewing on his fist.

"He can fit his whole hand into his mouth," Sapphire commented. Although her voice was usually flat, she sounded genuinely impressed.

Ruby snicker, patting his tiny head softly. "And can ya believe half of that is actually Rose?"

They sat there staring at into the ocean for only a small while, but it was long enough for Steven to crawl over to Ruby's lap and snuggle into her chest for a nap. Subconsciously, Ruby had been petting his fluffy hair, and only realized she had been doing so when the little quartz snored loudly and broke her out of her trance.

Her and Sapphire watched the rising and falling of his chest as he breathed Earth's air in softly through his tiny nose. With the deep orange glow of the falling sun, his features reflected that of his mother.

Ruby couldn't help but feel a flood of warmth for the small child, all past anger and resentment washing away with it.

"Y'know, Sapphy...He isn't really all that bad."

Sapphire just smiled at her. "I know." With those small words, she leaned in and kissed Ruby with all the love she held for the other gem, and their forms began to glow.

The sun was high in the sky when Greg, Pearl and Amethyst arrive back at the temple and found Garnet rocking Steven as he took his afternoon nap. She was playing with his tiny human toes as he slept, laughing quietly to herself.

"Oh good," Greg sighed with relief, hopping up into the cave. "He's in one piece."

With guilty expressions, Amethyst and Pearl approached Garnet where she stood with the baby gem.

Pearled sighed, leaning closer to Steven. Although there was sadness in her eyes, they lit up when he yawned in his sleep, and she reached over to tuck a bit of curly hair behind his ear.

"He looks a lot like Rose Quartz," she murmured, turning away in shame.

Amethyst crossed her arms and pretended not to be interested. "Less pink, though," she said in an offhand manner, but there was a little smile on her face.

Garnet did not need to see into the future to know that none of them would be so distant next time.

Greg brushed his fingers through his long brown hair and smiled, "Yeah. I was kinda hopin' he'd be a pinkie." He cleared his throat when Pearl gave him a look. "Okay, I know. Bad." He leaned to the side to glance around the other gems, and smiled happily as he observed Garnet interacting with Steven. "Doesn't he have the cutest little toes?"

Garnet simply nodded and continued playing with Steven's little feet.

"So..." Greg trailed off, hesitant to ruin the moment. "So can I have Steven back or are ya gonna hold him all night?" He laughed. "Boy, I gotta tell ya, he sure does sleep like a log. Takes after his old man."

Garnet's stiff features managed a small smile as she held him a little closer, "Just a little bit longer."

The fusion glanced out towards the setting sun, but her mind was years ahead, and at the core of her vision, was the single most important boy in history.

Steven Quartz Universe.


End file.
